Russell Investments' implementation business is set to grow on the back of demand from industry superannuation funds, according to the financial services firm's managing director.
"We have had more conversations over the last five weeks than the last five years with industry superannuation funds regarding our implementation services," Russell Investments managing director Chris Corneil said.
"These funds are looking at how to optimise their multi-manager portfolios, particularly around the areas of transition management, managing foreign exchange exposures and market rebalancing."
Cormeil said Russell's existing services in manager selection and research complemented its implementation business.
"We have the best of manager research and selection housed under one roof. We have also been managing multi-manager portfolios for 30 years. This makes us well positioned to offer funds advice around manager implementation," he said.
The implementation business began five years ago with one person and has subsequently grown to employ six people.
The firm recently hired Daniel Birch as portfolio manager in transition management.
"We are growing at 30 per cent a year and expect this growth to continue," Corneil said.
He said superannuation funds were already looking to reduce their costs following the Cooper review into superannuation.
"[Cooper review chair] Jeremy Cooper has already foreshadowed that superannuation funds must need to have their fees below 1 per cent," he said.
"Efficient asset allocation through effective manager implementation can save funds extra basis points in fees.
"We as an industry spend a lot of time talking about manager outperformance and whether these managers can achieve an extra 50 basis points. However, what happens when you throw away 70 basis points on sloppy implementation."
He said Russell hoped to grow the business so that the firm's implementation managers could actually work for superannuation funds in-house.
Earlier this week, Russell announced the establishment of an administration business for superannuation funds.
